Re: How Am I Going to Live with Energy-Saving Lightbulbs?


"abelard" <abelard3@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:t0tqf39vmbehgaofi2d8pjln8k3qp1bkg6@xxxxxxxxxx
On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:44:51 +0100, "William Black"
<william.black@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Proper transformers are OK but the black wall plug types are not!

why not?

Because they waste about half their energy as heat,

right
but your comment is that 'proper transformers are ok'....does that
mean they don't waste (much) via heat?

The electronics industry makes its money by selling stuff.

Stuff sold to big customers like armies or major governments is built to
complicated specifications where people care about stuff like 'lifetime
support costs' and 'annual running costs'.

Stuff flogged to you and me is made down to a price.

Cheap domestic stuff tends to be less efficient and wastes power because
efficient stuff tends to be heavy and complicated and expensive.

You're talking about an industry where the word 'elegant design' means
'costs less'.

You get sold stuff that eats twice as much electricity as the stuff the army
buys because the army is worried about what the real costs are and the army
often have to lug their own electricity generators about.

They pay a lot more money because they buy stuff that uses less electricity
and doesn't break down as often.

You pay a lot less, but it costs twice as much to run and it breaks far
more often.

Easy way to see the difference.

Your idea of a car is probably something like a Ford Mondeo, the army has
Land Rover Defenders, but not the new clever ones, they buy special ones
with big crude simple four cylinder engines in them with no computers.

The Land Rover is big, slow, crude and reasonably uncomfortable. The Ford
is fast, small and elegant.

The Land Rover lasts forever, doesn't break down unless they gets a flat
tyre and is dead easy to service with two spanners and a hammer. The Ford
needs three computers and a big and well equipped workshop to change the
oil.


--
William Black


I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.





.

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